STATE PAPERS. 



273 



namely, the probable amount be- 

 yond which the assessments can- 

 not be augmented, your Com- 

 mittee have again to lament, that 

 the returns collected in IS 16 are 

 not yet before them in detail, and 

 there are no means of ascertaining 

 with sufficient accuracy, either the 

 amount of the rates now assessed, 

 or the gross rental of the property 

 on which they are levied. What- 

 ever indeed that may be, it appears 

 to be certain that the land owners 

 and the farmers would cease to 

 have an adequate interest in con- 

 tinuing the cultivation of the land, 

 long before the gross amount of 

 the present rental could be trans- 

 ferred to the poor rate ; for it is 

 obvious, that a number of charges 

 must be provided for out of the 

 gross rental of land, without an 

 adequate piovision for which the 

 land cannot be occupied ; the 

 general expenses of nianagement, 

 the construction and repairs of 

 buildings, drains, and other ex- 

 pensive works, to which the te- 

 nant's capital cannot reach, con- 

 stitute the principal part of these 

 charges, and the portion of the 

 gross rent which is applied to 

 these purposes, can never be ap- 

 plied to the augmentation of the 

 poor rate. 



Even if it can be thought possi- 

 ble that any landlord could suffer 

 his land to be occupied and culti 

 vated, or that he would continue 

 togi\eto it the general superin- 

 tendance of an owner, when the 

 whole of the net rental was trans- 

 ferred to the poor, it is perfectly 

 clear tliat no tenant could liold a 

 farm upon the condition of main- 

 taining all the poor who might 

 under any circumstances want 

 relief; it would be as much im- 



VoL. LIX. 



possible for a tenant to do so as to 

 undertake to j)ay any rent which 

 the wants of his landlord might 

 induce him to desire, which con- 

 dition could never be complied 

 with. The apprehension, how- 

 ever, of being placed in such a 

 situation as this, could not fail to 

 deter persons from holding land 

 long before they paid to the poor 

 rate as much as they would other- 

 wise pay in rent ; and as under 

 these ciicumstances, the land- 

 owner would still remain enitled 

 to the foil, the i)aupers could not 

 enter and cultivate for themselves ; 

 nor could it be occupied for any 

 beneficial purpose, as whatever 

 stock might be found on the land 

 would be liable to distress for poor 

 rate. 



The consequences which are 

 likely to result from this state of 

 things are clearly set forth in the 

 petition from the parish of Wom- 

 bridge, in Salop, which is fast ap- 

 proaching to tliis state : the peti- 

 tioners state, " that the annual 

 value of land, mines, and houses 

 in this parish, is not sufficient to 

 maintain the nimierous and in- 

 creasing poor, even if the same 

 were to be set free of rent ; and 

 that these circumstances will in- 

 evitably compel the occupiers of 

 lands and mines to relinquish 

 them, and the poor will be with- 

 out relief or any known mode of 

 obtaining it, unless some assist- 

 ance be speedily aiforded them." 

 .\nd your Committee apprehend, 

 fi om the petitions before them, that 

 this is one only of many parishes 

 tl)at are fast approaching to a state 

 of dereliction. 



By following the dictates of their 

 own interests, land owners and 

 farniers become, in the natural 



T order 



